Sirica Returns To Courtroom For Law Award

WASHINGTON — Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell, Dean and Liddy were faded memories in Judge John Sirica`s courtroom Thursday, replaced by the unlikely sounds of laughter and applause.

``Maximum John,`` the stern jurist who sent President Nixon`s men to jail for Watergate crimes a decade ago, was back in Courtroom 2 of the U.S. District Courthouse to be honored by his peers. He received the Thomas C. Clark Award for outstanding exemplification of ``equal justice under law``

from the international law fraternity, Phi Alpha Delta.

No lines of spectators stretched down the halls seeking seats in the courtroom where Sirica ordered Nixon to turn over the Watergate tapes of Oval Office conversations that eventually were used as evidence against the president`s men.

When it came time to accept the award, Sirica talked not of presiding over the Watergate case but of his early days as a boxer.

Sirica did a little professional boxing before going to law school.

``I really had just two professional fights,`` the judge said. ``In the first one I was knocked out in the second round. In the second one, my opponent didn`t show up.``